


Galra Game Night

by Way_too_involved



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Captured, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Galra have some fun, Heith - Freeform, Hunk & Lance (Voltron) Friendship, Hurt Hunk (Voltron), Hurt Lance (Voltron), Implied/Referenced Torture, Insecure Lance (Voltron), Japanese Shiro (Voltron), Korean Keith (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Lance gets recked, Lance is not having fun, Langst, M/M, Protective Keith (Voltron), Protective Lance (Voltron), Protective Shiro (Voltron), Torture, shance, shangst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-04-25 23:53:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14389740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Way_too_involved/pseuds/Way_too_involved
Summary: “Choose one.”“Thought you all might be bored.” The general took a step closer towards the group. Lance stood up in front of his comrades, ignoring the protests coming from behind him. “We have a game we play with our prisoners. Especially if they came in a group, like you so generously did. And considering you are Paladins of The Mighty Voltron, you ought to play.”





	1. Chapter One

Things have been going relatively well. They found Shiro, the real one this time, and the OG team was back together again, Lotor joined the team which wasn’t accepted by some people at first but proved fruitful and on top of all that… Zarkon was dead.

The cherry on top was when the whole Getting-Shiro-Back brought 2 certain paladins closer. 

It started with a late night room visit to say a simple Thank You which turned to late night visits to comfort each other about their nightmares which either consisted of past trauma or of losing the people they care about which then escalated to late nights of stealing kisses.

Everyone noticed but no one wanted to rush them for an explanation. They were all happy to see their resident sharpshooter radiant with happiness and their leader more relaxed and lighter than ever. So when one day Lance pecked Shiro before a mission, it wasn’t that big of a deal.

They were all gathered around in the kitchen. 

They usually had their updates on the bridge where all the screens and monitors were, but they were all hungry and it was already lunch as everyone slept in.

They all seemed to have paired off unconsciously.

Lance and Shiro.

Allura and Lotor.

Keith and Hunk.

The latter being the oldest running couple out of the past mentioned trio, and them dating earned Lance a 50 GACs from Pidge as he placed a bet on them a long time ago. Pidge had her revenge and won when Lance and Shiro kissed in front of them for the first time. So everyone was even.

Coran stood at the head of the table, a position usually occupied by Allura who decided to sit with the rest of the paladins for a change, and raised his tablet.

“Good morning everyone!” His strong lively voiced carried across the room, resonating to everyone. All side conversations stopped for the sake of giving Coran their undivided attention. “Even though, it’s almost noon according to our clocks. I hope everyone had a good night sleep for once.”

Nods and confirmations were exchanged between the others. Everyone has been in a great mood lately. The paladins felt like they could take on a hundred Galra fleets and still make it in time for dinner. They seemed to be running high on the rush of things actually going well for once.

“I intercepted a distress signal coming from the Olkari.”

Shocked silence.

“Before you all start asking why I didn’t tell you before.” He looked over at Pidge and smiled sadly. The Olkari being the first planet the green paladin ever connected with. “I only knew about the signal 10 minutes before lunch. The topic of our meeting was going to be that we need to restock on certain supplies and I was going to offer a trip the Space Mall. But now I think you all know what we have to do.”

Coran looked at the young brave faces around the table. Determination shone clearly in their eyes and it filled him with pride to be a part of such a wonderful small group of people.

“What’s the plan, boss?” Lance said, looking at Shiro with love and respect.

Ever since those two started dating as well as Hunk and Keith started dating, whatever tension that seemed to be between those four, completely disintegrated. They all sat down and had a nice mature talk. Keith and Lance talked while Shiro and Hunk had a conversation. Both parties, of each conversation, expressed their love and protection towards their pseudo brother.

They discussed their future plan, everyone’s role and the best possible outcome that each strategy could give.

When everyone was done, Lance volunteered to wash the dishes to have some time to think and reminisce. He hummed an old Cuban/Spanish song he used to sing to his family when he would wash the dishes to relieve his mother some work after she cooked food for the whole house, which included his parents, his siblings and their spouses and his 3 nephews and niece.

He felt arms creep around his waist and a chin rest on his shoulder. The best thing about his height, he figured, was that it was not too short from Shiro. It gave the older man room to rest and not be too short that its uncomfortable.

“What are you thinking about?” Shiro whispered in his ear.

“Just how mama is doing without me.”

Shiro frowned. Lance hadn’t talked about his family in a while and it was honestly worrying Shiro as he knew how much Lance missed them and didn’t want the Cuban to bottle all his feelings.

“Tell me about her.” he invited. “Why you are worried?”

Lance smiled and deeply appreciated the thought.

They talked for what felt like hours. Lance sharing memories while Shiro following up with questions to clarify some things about the weirdness that is Lance’s huge family.

Shiro always had a small family, so the idea of a family of 16 really intrigued and worried him. They eventually moved to the couch to settle in with Lance resting his head on Shiro’s shoulder while the other stroked the tanned boy’s brown hair as he listened to Lance relive a memory where his brother almost shaved his sister’s eyebrows.

They were on standby as there was nothing they could really be doing in terms of the distress signal until Allura wormholed them to a closer location. Lotor would be giving Allura all the support she needs as the two became inseparable after their adventure to find the While Lion. After Lotor explained his stance on Alchemy, and how he completely backs Allura up after she turned out to be the absolute worthy one out of the two, whatever beef Lance had with Lotor seemed to disappear and the two actually became somewhat friends.

After some time, Allura called everyone to the bridge to announce their arrival into the system that host’s the Olkari planet. Everyone filed in in the span of a minute and stood patiently for Shiro to give the green light to go to their Lions.

“You are coming on this and Allura is staying on the castle.” Shiro said looking at Keith. This would be the first mission Keith would go on after quitting the Blade.

According to Keith, finding his mother and reconnecting with her was all he needed to fill the void that seemed to always reside in him. He said that he saw how life was short, whenever he would go on missions with the Blade, and decided to take a bigger risk of confessing and asking Hunk out on a date to the observation deck in the form of a picnic that he planned with Lance. All in all, it worked out spectacularly to the previous Red Paladin.

But so far, he has always only been a backup. Until now.

“I wouldn’t want to take Red from Lance, Shiro” Keith said, his voice coming out uncharacteristically small. He missed Red so deeply it was evident with how he would look at Lance when the latter would go to the Hanger for missions.

“C’mon my dude. It’s okay!” Lance said with an arm around Keith’s shoulders. “Besides! I miss Blue and Red has been shoving it down my throat how much he misses you.”

Keith smiled genuinely at that. He looked at Allura as if to take permission. Allura gave him an encouraging nod and smiled at the short boy which seemed to give Keith the biggest possible boost.

“Race you to the lions!” Keith yelled as he shoved Lance and took off.

“Hey! That is cheating, I wasn’t ready!” Lance yelled back as he ran behind Keith.

“You snooze, you lose.” Keith had replied, though it sound so far away as they probably almost reached their Hangers. No matter how many years seemed to pass, they never out grew their childish eccentric nature.

“Sorry Allura. I should’ve asked you first.” Shiro said rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

“Nonsense. He needed this.” Allura said softly.

“He did.” Hunk replied to that. “He’s been so down lately. Saying how he doesn’t contribute to the team like he used to. It’s two paladins now that seem to think so about themselves. Man, we really gotta step up our game.”

Hunk said looking levelly at Shiro.

“I couldn’t have said it better, big man.”

“YOU GUYS ARE LAME.” A voice boomed through the speakers. “STOP TALKING ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS AND LET US KICK SOME GALRA ASS!”

“Pidge!” Lance’s voice came from seemingly behind wherever Pidge was.

“PUT ME DOWN! NOOOO”

“Sorry guys. I took care of her. Talk about your feelings however you want now. Though I really want to remind you that we really are taking our time to reach the civilians and it would be a good idea for you all to RUN HERE.”

Hunk winced at those words. He looked at Shiro who seemed to pale, and at the exact same second they ran to their hangers.  
\-----------------

To be fair, the plan was going downhill way before they were all caught.

Hunk had sustained a head injury after hitting his head on the head rest as he collided with a Galra ship that came out of nowhere. Yellow stumbled, as much as you stumble in space, and got knocked out of commission.

Lance released an unearthly scream as he went after Hunk and tried to fend off against multiple Galra ships on his own which worked, for the first couple minutes, before he was completely surrounded and shot down at the same time.

Keith and Shiro were protecting Pidge, who was trying to get close to the main Galra ship so she can wirelessly get information from their databases. The Red and Black paladins held their ground before an ion cannon was fired, separating them from Pidge. They were all shot down within the minute they realized the fate of the Yellow and Blue paladins; the Galra took advantage of their distraction and delivered the blow.

And that was how they were all stuck in a small cell barely enough for the five of them. Hunk was injured with his head on Keith’s lab and Lance had Shiro’s head on his shoulder, he had some bruises all over from multiple assaults from the soldiers trying to get him away from his best friend after he was shot down. Pidge laid next to Shiro; she looked even smaller than usual with her tiny frame under Shiro’s much larger one.

“Guys.” Lance’s grim voice came out of nowhere.

Shiro sucked in a sharp breath.

They were all using the silence to try and comprehend what the hell just happened and how bad their current situation was.

“We need an escape plan.” Surprisingly this came from Pidge. She looked exhausted, as if all her all-nighters were finally catching up to her. Shiro gently stroked her hair.

“Any ideas, Miss Brains?” Shiro asked softly. He could feel how scared she was through her tense muscles against him, so he tried to soften the situation for the younger paladin.

“Not yet.” She replied after some time. “We can’t risk doing anything rash. Hunk can’t take that right now.”

Her words seemed to put them on an edge they all low-key needed. They brainstormed for a while not rushing as they needed the perfect plan.

Their thoughts were cut short as the cell door suddenly opened.

A harsh looking Galra escorted with two guards entered and stood admiring them. From what the paladins learned from Lotor about the ranks of the Galra soldiers, this was a high ranking Galra. A general.

“Choose one.”

His voice, if possible, was worse than his looks. He looked at them one by one, none of them moving a muscle.

“If you don’t we will choose one for you and believe me we don’t take anything into consideration.”

At that Lance, Shiro and Keith looked at each other. One thought running Not Pidge or Hunk.

“What for?” Asked Lance, hoping his voice masked how much he was scared shitless.

The general smiled. The smile could only be described as predatory.

“Thought you all might be bored.” The general took a step closer towards the group. Lance stood up in front of his comrades, ignoring the protests coming from behind him. “We have a game we play with our prisoners. Especially if they came in a group, like you so generously did. And considering you are Paladins of The Mighty Voltron, you ought to play.”

That was worse than what they expected. They heard stories of the ruthlessness the Galra tend to have deep within, taking into account the gladiator games and how they used others’ suffering for their own entertainment.

“I’ll play.” Lance said grinning confidently at the general. Shiro looked in horror as Lance’s hands were behind his back clenched into a fist, no doubt to hide the trembling that seemed to take over his entire being.

Lance thought about this the minute the door of the cell opened. He had taken a look around at the faces next to him. Pidge, too small yet already went through trauma so far from what anyone her age should have ever even dreamed of. Hunk, his best friend, laying down with a severe head injury that had left him unconscious this entire time. Keith, his self-proclaimed rival turned friend turned best friend boyfriend, and that has a lot of points in Lance’s book, he knows Hunk needs Keith and would go insane if something was to happen to him.

And Shiro. He shouldn’t even be an option. Lance would die once and once again before he ever let Shiro near any sort of danger. Not if he can help it. He knows that Shiro is the leader and is supposed to be exposed to risks and whatnot. But he had already had his fair share of trauma to last him 3 lifetimes over.

“Very well, Blue.” The general grinned sadistically. “From what I gather from the other paladins’ reactions, this is going to be fun.”

Keith held Hunk’s upper frame closer to his body as he shook in his place. He couldn’t quite believe what was happening at that moment. Lance volunteering to an obvious suicide game to save the rest of them was the Lance-selfless-bullshit he should’ve expected. But it didn’t loosen the knot that formed around his heart. He knew for certain that when Hunk wakes up he would be livid.

Shiro opened his mouth to object, to go instead of Lance. But he seemed to be frozen in place. He looked around and then looked back at Lance, and he got it. He saw what Lance saw and he hated his mind when it all clicked and made sense. He knew Lance would hate him if he did anything to mess with his plan. All he had to do is trust Lance will keep himself alive till they figure out a way out this.

The general called up another two guards to watch over the rest of the paladins as the two guards that came with the general walked up to Lance. They moved to tie his hands.

“Since you are a Paladin, I can’t take any chances that you do something to one of my guards.” The general warned looking at Lance with the corner of his eye. He looked at Lance as if he was nothing but gum on his shoe; he couldn’t hurt a guard even if he tried as that would risk the other paladins.

“Your guards? Who are you loyal to anyways?” Shiro accused. “Zarkon is dead and Lotor wouldn’t want you to do this.”

“I know Zarkon is dead. Everyone does.” The general snapped. “And you really think I will follow the orders of that traitor brat? He betrayed the Empire the minute he allied himself with Voltron. Now if you don’t want me to finish Blue off and take little Miss Green, I suggest you be quiet.”

That effectively shut Shiro up, as he tightened his hold on Pidge.

“Now what game are we playing?” Lance tried to keep all the attention onto him. “As the youngest one of 5 siblings, I know plenty of games. Charades works wonders to pass the time but you might need to-“

Pain exploded in Lance lower limb, his vision went white as he felt whatever he had for lunch threaten to come up again. He swayed on his feet and tried to hold on to something to get some weight off his leg. The guards took no regard to Lance’s pain as they grabbed him roughly by the collar out of the cell, effectively muting the cries from the three conscious paladins left behind as the door of the cell closed with a bang.

He was taken to another room. This one was almost five times the size of the cell he was in a minute ago. His leg throbbed as he was pushed unceremoniously to the middle of the floor. He didn’t move a muscle as he waited for the black spots that littered his vision to clear and took a look at his leg first. If he was to escape, he needed to know if walking out was an option.

It wasn’t.

His leg looked like it was placed in a blender. It was torn and oozing blood out of the leg of the under-suit from four large scratches that were way too deep and needed fast medical attention. He couldn’t calm his stomach down this time and retched his stomach’s content on the floor next to him.

He heard loud growling around him but was too busy getting himself stable again. 

He felt someone lift his head by hair, gaining all of Lance’s attention.

“That was utterly disgusting.” The Galra that held him commented. “Don’t do that again if you want to live.”

He let Lance go and walked to the general who stayed by the door looking over at the scene like it was all an amusing play.

“Remember you volunteered.” The general announced. “The instructions are easy but if you get me to repeat them, your other leg will get the same treatment. So listen carefully. You will take two dice. These dice are numbered on all their sides. What you need to do is get a higher number than your opponent and you as well as the other paladins are free to go.”

Lance blinked a couple times to trying to comprehend what he had to do. Roll a dice? Lance thought, that’s it? Seems easy. Dios. Please let it be this is easy.

The general smiled as he thought about how entertaining this prisoner was going to be to him and his soldiers. After all, getting to take your pent up vengeance against Voltron on one of its own Paladins will be the best way to reward his soldiers.


	2. Chapter Two

Lance looked at the dice which, upon further inspection, looked like a normal monopoly dice. All sides made sense and were the same size… so what was the catch?

He looked around the room at the Galra surrounding him. He was their entertainment. They couldn’t care less about whether he made it out of this game unscathed or even dead.

And then it all clicked. He was theirs to play with until he rolls higher. To do whatever the hell they wanted.

The gruesomely looking Galra in front of him smiled, something his face probably wasn’t designed to do in the first place, and rolled his dice. A 5 and a 6. Almost a perfect roll. It almost seemed fitting. He prayed to whoever was listening, though he knew it was kind of impossible, that he gets a 6 each. He closed his eyes and rolled.

Because he closed his eyes, he didn’t see neither the hit nor the results of his roll as the next thing he knew, he was thrown across the room into the arms of one of the soldiers around the ring.

“A 3 and a 4 are nothing against my 11, Blue Paladin.” Gruesome Face mocked. “Remember. Roll higher.”

He said it like Lance had a choice. This was a game of probability. A game of luck. Lance knew that if he didn’t roll higher, he will not live long enough to survive the game. And that was exactly what they wanted.

He stood up on shaky legs and slowly walked to the center of the room and sat back down, crossing his legs and looking in front of him with his head held high. He was not going to let them get to him. The Galra sneered and rolled for his turn.

4 and 5.

Not that high. Maybe Lance actually could have a shot at this.

Just before he rolled, his head collided with someone’s foot and he saw stars. His whole brain throbbed as he was kicked to the side, blood pouring from the trauma gash on the left side of his face. His shaky hands, too weak to hold the dice, promptly dropped them to show 3 and 2.

_Dios._

This was going to be so much harder than he thought, and it wasn’t even that bad yet. All he had was a head trauma and some bruised ribs. He knew that if it was pidge here, she would’ve suffered more as her body was relatively smaller. If it was Keith, they would have known he was half Galra. If it was Hunk, he would’ve been too nervous and that would have aggravated them to get more entertainment. If was Shiro, _Dios,_ if it was Shiro he wouldn’t have survived. They would’ve been way, way more… angry, anything to break the witch’s champion.

So, he was glad it was him. He was a neutral captive. Not too important and much more expandable, _easily replaced_.

He barely waited a few seconds for the black spots to clear from his vision before a punch to the back threw him off his feet in front of him. His breath knocked out of him as the floor sped to catch his fall. They were taking turns with him; Each fulfilling their own vendetta against Voltron.

The Galra rolled a 4 and a 5 which Lance went up against with a 1 and a 6 and a few broken fingers. They were going for his hands mainly, urging him to drop the dice instead of actually putting effort into rolling it, like he could’ve actively chosen what he got.

His broken fingers shook, each movement aggravating whatever pain was inflicted on him to intensify by 10 fold making him see white for a few seconds. They went on for 2 more turns before Lance couldn’t do anything anymore and his vision went completely black finally indicating his limit.

“Take him back to the cell.” Gruesome Face ordered. “This is not fun without his reactions and screams. Bring him back after a few vargas.”

“Why not take one of the others?” A random Galra asked.

“Because this one is the heart of that team.” He smiled sadistically. “Break him and you break all of them”

 

* * *

 

 

Shiro’s mind was racing a hundred miles per hour. Lance has been gone for hours now and it was driving them all insane.

The soldiers came to tie them all to the wall but didn’t grace them with their presence after that. Keith fought them with all he had as they manhandled Hunk, who was still out of it, to tie him to the wall. They ended up getting a longer chain for Hunk not before decking Keith and tying him to the wall in silence. Shiro’s attention was tunnelled on Pidge, making sure she was okay and not treated too roughly. The cuff that was on his arm de-activated it, they came prepared for him.

But that was all they did. They didn’t come to interrogate them or torture them for ‘fun’. Were they that satisfied with what they were doing to Lance?

A few more minutes passed and the cell door opened. A Galra soldier walked in carrying a limb bloodied body that he recognized as Lance. His leg was twisted in an ungodly direction while his head bled down his face. He had his arms around his chest while breathing in shallow breaths; he must’ve broken some ribs. God, Why did this happen to Lance of all people?

Actually ending up with Lance was the best thing that could’ve ever happen to him in space. He confessed once that he wouldn’t have dated Lance back on earth, that they were too alike back then that they wouldn’t have worked out. But right now, he realized that he was what Shiro wanted, what he needed. Lance was made for him; with his stupid jokes and big compassionate heart and understanding personality. He was always animated, made sure the atmosphere was never too awkward or too dense; he never pushed Shiro to make an effort in a conversation when he couldn’t and he never hated him for it too.

So to see him this… lifeless broke Shiro heart into a million pieces. How could anyone ruin something that was so pure, so full of love and life and turn it to this. He tried so hard to shield the others with all his being to the devastations of war. To spare them the misery and pain, but he knew that had a limit. They were Paladins after all. But right now, he couldn’t help but hate himself for failing Lance.

“What did you do to him!” Pidge thrashed all but broke off the chains. The older paladin never saw her angry like this in all the time he knew her.

He felt frozen in his place. He couldn’t move a muscle. It’s like time stopped and all that was in the cell was just him and Lance.

The Galra walked in to the middle of the cell, away from the wall so their hands couldn’t reach him, and left him there and closed the cell behind them.

He looked far too young.

“Lance…” Shiro didn’t know why he whispered, all he knew was how utterly hopeless he felt at that moment. “Please, baby. Open your eyes.”

A few minutes passed without a single sound besides their too loud heartbeats and Lance’s shallow breaths. His eyes were zeroed on Lance’s chest to keep reminding himself that he is breathing and there could be a chance for Lance to survive this.

During the time they waited for Lance, Keith and Hunk woke up and as if on instinct they both sought out each other out to make sure of the other’s safety. He would’ve envied them if they were anyone but Keith and Hunk.

“Is he going to be alright?”

“He better be.” Keith said, defensively. “Hunk, can you reach him?”

Hunk crawled forward, wincing at every move as he must have bruises from the battle and from being manhandled by the guards. He barely reached Lance, only at the level of his arm.

“This is probably going to hurt, buddy, but you know I wouldn’t do it on purpose if I didn’t have to.” Hunk whispered, not like Lance could hear him anyways, he was still out cold.

He crawled forward, grabbed Lance’s less injured arm and pulled him unto his lap. Lance’s painful yet low pain-filled groan was the best thing Shiro heard, giving the circumstance, as it meant Lance still felt physically pain and wasn’t completely in a coma.

After some slightly thorough examination, Hunk confirmed the broken ribs and twisted ankle and added the broken wrist and fingers and dislocated shoulder. He also suspected a concussion based on his head trauma. Overall, he was not doing remotely well.

“When they come back, I am taking his place.” Shiro told the rest of the Paladins. There was finality in his voice that the others caught on and didn’t argue with. He stared at Lance, imaging the lively tanned boy he loved with all his being to keep that image of Lance in his mind. This… This wasn’t his Lance.

“You should re-set his shoulder before he wakes up.” Keith suggested. “And before you guys hate me for this, it will be less painful for him now unconscious than if he was conscious. Believe me.”

Hunk looked at Shiro as if asking permission. He hesitantly nodded and closed his eyes. He didn’t to see anything that could give Lance pain, even if it was for his sake. Shiro heard Hunk take a deep breath and a POP sound.

“God I am so sorry, Lance. I am sorry.” Shiro opened his eyes to see Hunk holding Lance tightly and slightly shaking with tears falling onto lance under him.

Another sharper groan came out of Lance as he slowly opened his pain filled eyes, which were in direct line of vision with Shiro’s.

At first no one spoke.

They couldn’t believe that Lance could wake up this early; they estimated he might take another few hours to regain the slightest sliver of consciousness due to his painful injuries, but then again, hunk did just reset his dislocated shouler. They were lucky this was Lance’s reaction instead of something more critical.

“Hey, buddy.” Hunk combed Lance’s hair away from his eyes to try and attempt to make the Cuban as comfortable as he possibly can in this disgusting tiny cell. He wiped away the fallen tears off of Lance’s face.

“H..Hey” Lance’s voice wouldn’t have been heard if they all hadn’t been holding their breath.

“Could you please stay awake for us?”

“Sure…”

Blue eyes met grey and Shiro wanted to nothing over than to kill every single Galra that hurt Lance on this ship.

“Hey baby…”

Lance attempted to smile. He must’ve seen the guilt in Shiro’s eyes. Even now, Lance wanted to make sure Shiro was okay.

“We are getting you out of here, okay? Just hang tight for me.”

He knew his promise was somewhat unbelievable but he needed to hold on to any possible hope that he could find within himself.

They kept the small talk going with Lance, whether it was Shiro or Hunk, while the other talked to Pidge thinking of a way to get out and get transmission to Allura or even to Lotor’s ship.

“You sure this could work?” Shiro asked for the what felt like the millionth time.

“Yes. Jesus Shiro, you need to have more faith in me.” Shiro looked at Lance who was talking softly to Hunk. They couldn’t afford mistakes. “I’ll explain the plan to you again to ease your mind, okay?”

Shiro nodded and looked at Pidge to give her his undivided attention.

“My watch will send a faint, short transmission to the Olkari, since they are the only planet bothered to memorize its coordinates, and Earth is out of the question, they will know it’s me as we have codenames, **don’t ask** , and they will contact the castle which will notify Allura.”

“Then send the transmission already.”

“You need to let me finish, _Shirogane_. The cell walls are blocking the signal. When they come again, we need to keep that door **open** for as long as possible, which will give me enough time to send the transmission. Capiche?”

“Shirogane?” He couldn’t hide the smile off his lips. Matt used to all him that whenever he was being extra annoying. He missed that too much sometimes.

“What?”

“Nothing. So we have to distract the guards?”

“Exactly.”

“I can do that.”

Everyone in the cell fell silence and stared at Lance. No one expected him to have been listening to Pidge in the first place.

“What?”

“I said I can do it. I am the only one untied and they will come for me anyways. All I have to do is just make it a bit more difficult for them to take me.”

Lance was regaining some of his strength as apparently demonstrated by his stronger-than-before voice and colour that was ever so slowly coming back to his previously tanned complexion.

“You are not going back out there, Lance.” Keith broke the silence. Shiro could see his knuckles white from being clenched so tightly from rage. “I am going.”

“Neither of you are going.” Shiro broke Lance off before he spoke. “I am the leader and Black Paladin. It is supposed to be me.”

“Bullshit.”

“Lance…”

“You heard me. That’s bullshit. They got used to me so I am going. Besides, like you said, you are the black paladin they are going to be much more brutal with you, hell even with Keith ever since the news about the Red Paladin being half Galra spread. I am going and that is final.”

Lance rarely spoke with such authority towards the team, always accepting his role as the buffer and the more sensible one between them, that when he actually does speak like this, it stumps all of them silent.

“You have thought about this before, haven’t you?”

  
Shiro stared at Lance. He remembered the conversation Keith told him he and Lance had before. He thought he expendable, replaceable.“Yeah… Hunk is injured and Pidge is too valuable and young to volunteer. It’s going to be me. It can’t be anyone else.”

_Which couldn’t be further from the truth._

Their comebacks to what Lance had just said was cut off as the door of the cell abruptly opened showing the same Galra general that came the first time Lance was taken.

“Well, Blue Paladin. We have clearly assumed the worst and gave you enough time to regain your strength back. Ready for round 2?”

“Round 2? You mean I didn’t win yet?” Lance looked at the Galra up and down and smirked. **He was buying them time.** “Bummer and I hear I was wondering you came to give me my reward for kicking Gruesome Face’s ass.”

“Keep mouthing off, Paladin, and you will have me to be afraid of too. The soldiers won’t be the only ones attacking you between your rolls.”

“A general? Targetting lil ‘ol me? I feel honoured.”

Shiro’s blood ran cold. All this conversation was doing is adding fuel to the flame and Lance was slowly signing off his death sentence. He looked at Pidge who was even paler than usual as she looked at the scene in front of her and then down subtly at her hidden watch.

“You should.” The general’s predatory look towards Lance left a bitter taste in Shiro’s mouth. “What the other did to you is nothing compared to what I am planning.”

He gestured towards the guard that stood next to the door to take Lance away. The minute he was close to Lance, everything happened so fast.

Lance rounded a punch aimed at the guard’s jaw, which met its intended target as it held the element of surprise to its advantage. But the guard quickly recovered and returned the favour by punching Lance in the face, resulting with a split lip that stained lance’s teeth red.

“The guards are instructed to hurt you everywhere but your last working hand.” The general sneered as Lance was hauled off his feet. “Call it generosity but the game wouldn’t be fun with you completely useless, now would it?”

Shiro fought against the restrains so much that his human wrist was bleeding. He caught Lance looking at Pidge with a questioning look that she returned with a nod.

The transmission was sent. Help was on its way.

But at what cost?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry i took this long to update... i am going to try and not let this happen again, i promise.

**Author's Note:**

> This was prompt idea i got like a million years ago and my being a very busy anxious person doing medical training it took so long to actually get started.  
> \----  
> Kudos and Comments mean so much you guys, it gives me the boost to continue writing.  
> \----  
> I will be posting some of the prompts I have written. (so some of you might have already read some from tumblr...)  
> If anyone would like to send any prompts, comment or send an ask to my tumblr  
> https://no-i-didnt-notice-im-short.tumblr.com/  
> I will try to reply to everything =)


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